Clinton Cards names first 44 stores to close

Wednesday 23 May 2012 - Editorial Assistant

Almost 50 high street stores owned by greeting cards specialist Clinton Cards are set to close in the next week or so, an official statement today has confirmed.

A full list of the 25 Birthdays and 19 Clinton Cards-branded stores which will shut their doors before the end of this month has been published, and is reproduced below.

Zolfo Cooper, administrator for the failed retailer, said that a decision over the remaining Clinton Cards stores will be finalised over the coming weeks.

Which stores survive will be dependent on the co-operation of landlords, although it has already been announced that as many as 350 of its 784 outlets have been earmarked for closure.

Peter Saville, Joint Administrator and Partner at Zolfo Cooper, said: “We have received expressions of interest from a number of third parties and are confident that the remaining retail estate will be better placed going forward.

“It appears unlikely, however, that we will be able to find a buyer for the majority of the Birthdays stores and our analysis highlights that we cannot justify continuing to trade certain Birthdays and Clinton Cards stores into June. As a result, there is no alternative option but to close these 44 stores in May.”

Around 300 full and part time staff will lose their jobs as a result of these initial closures and another 66 employees of Clintons have also been made redundant from its head office in Loughton, Essex.

Clintons formally entered administration earlier this month after losing the support of one of its major suppliers American Greetings and becoming unable to manage its debts any longer, having made accumulated losses of £130 million since 2004.